© The Waters Trust, 2014, All Rights Reserved
Lifepod
A strategic global recovery tool
The Lifepod sustainable recovery strategy is the result of my involvement in sustainable community design and energy breakthroughs over the last twelve years. I began to realize that building even hundreds of sustainable communities worldwide would not solve the economic or environmental problems faced by the vast majority of humanity.
My goal was to find a way to solve the most global crises possible in the least amount of time, while enabling a grass roots transition to more sustainable sources of energy, food and water.
I came to realize that we desperately need a sustainable solution for modifying existing homes and communities, since this is where the vast majority of humanity lives. What if any home could be modified to provide all basic energy, food and water needs indefinitely, becoming fully sustainable and off grid? Was there a way to achieve this at no cost? What about dealing with environmental or economic disasters? How do you still protect your family if you all have to abandon your home? These are the questions that led to the Lifepod solution.
The Lifepod is designed to provide portable, sustainable, off grid conversion of
existing homes and communities at no cost. At the heart of this system is an
abundant energy source and science that is vital for our future survival.
By integrating cutting edge breakthroughs in energy, automated organic food growth and water extraction technologies into a single portable modular system, the Lifepod can produce all energy, food and drinking water needs for a family indefinitely from a small 7' x 12' trailer. This decentralized approach can provide security in any location or climate. More importantly, it can be deployed at no cost, since the monthly savings in food and energy are significantly greater than the monthly cost of purchase.
With a Lifepod attached to a home, advanced organic food is grown automatically in an enclosed climate controlled space – a living pantry. Insulation and an advanced lighting system provides optimal growth conditions in any climate so sunlight is not required. All fresh drinking water requirements are extracted from the air indefinitely and recycled, even in a desert climate. Power is provided by an advanced fuelless generator that easily provides all electrical needs for the home 24/7.
By reducing these key issues down to a single portable system, design of both sustainable communities and conversion of existing communities becomes simple, cheap and easily achievable. This is not possible with traditional technologies, especially when it comes to energy.
Family security
True family security comes down to self reliance. In affluent cultures, a centralized economy is still far too vulnerable to a variety of potential threats while in the third world, lack of basic resources cause significant stress and hardship. Even from a day to day perspective for the average American family, the stress of earning enough to pay for basic needs is considerable. If a family can automatically provide its own survival needs, then oil shortages, grid failure, drought, food shortages, terrorist attacks, hurricanes, pandemics, earthquakes or economic crises create far less threat or stress.
In many areas where energy can be sold back to the grid, this system would not only cost nothing, but a considerable income could be generated. The average home in the US only uses 25th of the rated line capacity which means that at 10 cents/kwh (below the national average retail) , a Lifepod could earn over $2,500/month in energy income alone.
Portability is also important. Even if a home must be abandoned, a self powered climate controlled Lifepod can provide all basic needs in any location or climate. It is also capable of being towed behind a small vehicle, and with a few modifications, provide a vehicle with unlimited range.
Transition strategy
Since shifting from a competitive fuel based economy to a sustainable fuelless economy obsoletes and decentralizes many currently unsustainable infrastructures, significant job loss and job shifts are inevitable. However this is already happening in our failing economic system. Transition strategy is critical. To be clear about the term “unsustainable”, if a living system is unsustainable, it is dying.
The goal was to minimize the complexity, damage and duration of that transition by enabling a family to survive without outside assistance while quietly introducing the primary elements of a sustainable economy based on corrected physics of energy and resource abundance. This synergistic approach enables economic transition with minimum disruption in any climate, economy or culture. By protecting the family unit at no cost, the basic ingredients for a decentralized, cooperative dominant culture and economy can emerge with minimum disruption.
There are many levels to the deployment strategy. Each breakthrough technology employed can also creates a domino effect of potential markets, from transportation to healthcare. The technology behind the energy generators obsoletes all other sources of energy at any scale with far less cost and use of resources. Advanced food and water technologies revolutionize all areas of agriculture, health and water use. The heating and cooling technologies apply to all markets requiring temperature manipulation or filtration. Advanced health technologies can be integrated into food production, water extraction, lighting, air treatment and even construction materials. Waste recovery technologies have applications in mining, sewage treatment, landfill recapture and material science.
By justifying and integrating all these capabilities into a single scalable, modular approach, various capabilities can emerge naturally in various markets, rather than trying to compete directly in areas that may be highly resistant to change. Small scale portable food production does not appear to pose an immediate threat to the energy or transportation industry for example.
Micro sustainability
The future capability of the Lifepod approach comes from miniaturization. With a scaled down generator, a small bottle can constantly extract and purify water from air so that it always provides life support. This is possible in even the driest climate and removes nothing that is not returned to the environment. The principle is similar to a dehumidifier. The same bottle can also process and program the water for health and even grow enough algae based nutrients using advanced lighting for an individual to survive. This life saving personal device could be airlifted and dropped by the millions in disaster and refugee situations. The various technologies required to accomplish this already exist.
Where this all leads
Removing scarcity helps eliminate poverty and reduce violence. Affluence stabilizes population growth. Consuming food and water that benefits from the latest health technologies can dramatically reduces risk and cost of illness and suffering. Reducing the need to work for basic survival removes many of the expenses and stress of living in any economy or culture.
Corrected “fuelless abundance” physics reduces dependance on centralized infrastructures and gives us access to the resources of our solar system. This dramatically expands available human habitats, both on and off planet while reducing the stress of current population levels on an already overloaded global ecosystem. The implications are massive. Imagine just the obsolescence of roads (ecological barriers) and the resultant effect on ecosystems. This goes hand in hand with this revelation: http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html
The Lifepod addresses all of these issues with a simple direct solution. As a concept, it is not tied to any particular size or approach, as a trailer, closet, backpack, raft or airdropped self inflating structure. It is a concept of decentralized portable survivability that can adapt to the needs of each situation and habitat, while taking advantage of mass produced modular components.
The Lifepod can help resolve disasters, poverty, starvation, healthcare costs, drought, domestic and community survival, family security, economic instability and environmental recovery. It's primary function is to enable sustainable transition and personal security at no cost. This creates a powerful combination of solutions for sustainable economic and environmental recovery at any scale.
A strategic global recovery tool
The Lifepod sustainable recovery strategy is the result of my involvement in sustainable community design and energy breakthroughs over the last twelve years. I began to realize that building even hundreds of sustainable communities worldwide would not solve the economic or environmental problems faced by the vast majority of humanity.
My goal was to find a way to solve the most global crises possible in the least amount of time, while enabling a grass roots transition to more sustainable sources of energy, food and water.
I came to realize that we desperately need a sustainable solution for modifying existing homes and communities, since this is where the vast majority of humanity lives. What if any home could be modified to provide all basic energy, food and water needs indefinitely, becoming fully sustainable and off grid? Was there a way to achieve this at no cost? What about dealing with environmental or economic disasters? How do you still protect your family if you all have to abandon your home? These are the questions that led to the Lifepod solution.
The Lifepod is designed to provide portable, sustainable, off grid conversion of
existing homes and communities at no cost. At the heart of this system is an
abundant energy source and science that is vital for our future survival.
By integrating cutting edge breakthroughs in energy, automated organic food growth and water extraction technologies into a single portable modular system, the Lifepod can produce all energy, food and drinking water needs for a family indefinitely from a small 7' x 12' trailer. This decentralized approach can provide security in any location or climate. More importantly, it can be deployed at no cost, since the monthly savings in food and energy are significantly greater than the monthly cost of purchase.
With a Lifepod attached to a home, advanced organic food is grown automatically in an enclosed climate controlled space – a living pantry. Insulation and an advanced lighting system provides optimal growth conditions in any climate so sunlight is not required. All fresh drinking water requirements are extracted from the air indefinitely and recycled, even in a desert climate. Power is provided by an advanced fuelless generator that easily provides all electrical needs for the home 24/7.
By reducing these key issues down to a single portable system, design of both sustainable communities and conversion of existing communities becomes simple, cheap and easily achievable. This is not possible with traditional technologies, especially when it comes to energy.
Family security
True family security comes down to self reliance. In affluent cultures, a centralized economy is still far too vulnerable to a variety of potential threats while in the third world, lack of basic resources cause significant stress and hardship. Even from a day to day perspective for the average American family, the stress of earning enough to pay for basic needs is considerable. If a family can automatically provide its own survival needs, then oil shortages, grid failure, drought, food shortages, terrorist attacks, hurricanes, pandemics, earthquakes or economic crises create far less threat or stress.
In many areas where energy can be sold back to the grid, this system would not only cost nothing, but a considerable income could be generated. The average home in the US only uses 25th of the rated line capacity which means that at 10 cents/kwh (below the national average retail) , a Lifepod could earn over $2,500/month in energy income alone.
Portability is also important. Even if a home must be abandoned, a self powered climate controlled Lifepod can provide all basic needs in any location or climate. It is also capable of being towed behind a small vehicle, and with a few modifications, provide a vehicle with unlimited range.
Transition strategy
Since shifting from a competitive fuel based economy to a sustainable fuelless economy obsoletes and decentralizes many currently unsustainable infrastructures, significant job loss and job shifts are inevitable. However this is already happening in our failing economic system. Transition strategy is critical. To be clear about the term “unsustainable”, if a living system is unsustainable, it is dying.
The goal was to minimize the complexity, damage and duration of that transition by enabling a family to survive without outside assistance while quietly introducing the primary elements of a sustainable economy based on corrected physics of energy and resource abundance. This synergistic approach enables economic transition with minimum disruption in any climate, economy or culture. By protecting the family unit at no cost, the basic ingredients for a decentralized, cooperative dominant culture and economy can emerge with minimum disruption.
There are many levels to the deployment strategy. Each breakthrough technology employed can also creates a domino effect of potential markets, from transportation to healthcare. The technology behind the energy generators obsoletes all other sources of energy at any scale with far less cost and use of resources. Advanced food and water technologies revolutionize all areas of agriculture, health and water use. The heating and cooling technologies apply to all markets requiring temperature manipulation or filtration. Advanced health technologies can be integrated into food production, water extraction, lighting, air treatment and even construction materials. Waste recovery technologies have applications in mining, sewage treatment, landfill recapture and material science.
By justifying and integrating all these capabilities into a single scalable, modular approach, various capabilities can emerge naturally in various markets, rather than trying to compete directly in areas that may be highly resistant to change. Small scale portable food production does not appear to pose an immediate threat to the energy or transportation industry for example.
Micro sustainability
The future capability of the Lifepod approach comes from miniaturization. With a scaled down generator, a small bottle can constantly extract and purify water from air so that it always provides life support. This is possible in even the driest climate and removes nothing that is not returned to the environment. The principle is similar to a dehumidifier. The same bottle can also process and program the water for health and even grow enough algae based nutrients using advanced lighting for an individual to survive. This life saving personal device could be airlifted and dropped by the millions in disaster and refugee situations. The various technologies required to accomplish this already exist.
Where this all leads
Removing scarcity helps eliminate poverty and reduce violence. Affluence stabilizes population growth. Consuming food and water that benefits from the latest health technologies can dramatically reduces risk and cost of illness and suffering. Reducing the need to work for basic survival removes many of the expenses and stress of living in any economy or culture.
Corrected “fuelless abundance” physics reduces dependance on centralized infrastructures and gives us access to the resources of our solar system. This dramatically expands available human habitats, both on and off planet while reducing the stress of current population levels on an already overloaded global ecosystem. The implications are massive. Imagine just the obsolescence of roads (ecological barriers) and the resultant effect on ecosystems. This goes hand in hand with this revelation: http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html
The Lifepod addresses all of these issues with a simple direct solution. As a concept, it is not tied to any particular size or approach, as a trailer, closet, backpack, raft or airdropped self inflating structure. It is a concept of decentralized portable survivability that can adapt to the needs of each situation and habitat, while taking advantage of mass produced modular components.
The Lifepod can help resolve disasters, poverty, starvation, healthcare costs, drought, domestic and community survival, family security, economic instability and environmental recovery. It's primary function is to enable sustainable transition and personal security at no cost. This creates a powerful combination of solutions for sustainable economic and environmental recovery at any scale.